Blue Haven shooting: Brayden and Kayde Aiken, Zane McGeachie ‘ambushed’ victims with shotgun

Three men laid in wait and “ambushed” a father and son by opening fire twice on their ute with a sawn-off shotgun with no regard for who was actually in the vehicle, a court has heard.

Shotgun shells. Picture: Aaron Lemphers/Arming the Nation/Facebook

A father and son were heading to what they thought was a one-on-one fight when three men opened fire on their ute twice while they were “sitting ducks”, a court has heard.

Brayden Aiken, 29, of Charmhaven, his brother Kayde Alldred Aiken, 21, of Lake Munmorah, and Zane McGeachie, 30, faced a sentence hearing at Gosford District Court on Friday after they all pleaded guilty to firing a gun in a manner likely to injure people, reckless wounding in company, using an offensive weapon and possessing an unauthorised firearm.

The court heard while it was unclear who actually pulled the trigger, all three pleaded guilty to the offences because they were all part of the same joint criminal enterprise.

Brayden Aken’s barrister told the court the victims were “no strangers to violence” and were armed themselves with a knife, a baton and a baseball bat.

She said they didn’t ambush the victims who had “no doubt there would be a violent confrontation” and the trio used the shotgun to “scare the victims”.

The Aikens and McGeachie faced a sentence hearing in Gosford District Court. Picture: David Swift

However the Crown prosecutor rejected that argument saying if they wanted to scare the victims “why didn’t they fire into the air?”

“These people were sitting ducks in that vehicle,” he said.

The father and son, aged 27 and 50, were shot in the car park of Blue Haven Oval in the predawn hours of New Year's Day, 2023. Picture: Google

“It’s loaded, we know it’s loaded because it’s fired twice.

“That was a calculated shot towards the vehicle and not to scare them.”

The prosecutor said the pre-dawn shooting on January 1, 2023, was “reckless in the extreme”.

“They didn’t know who was in the car, they didn’t know how many people are in the car or if they’re the right people,” he said.

“It was an ambush. They didn’t even give them the opportunity to get out of the car before that trigger is fired.”

McGeachie’s solicitor said his client was not involved in the earlier altercation and just went along because he was “intoxicated at the time”.

The father and son, who were shot in the car park of Blue Haven Oval in the predawn hours of New Year's Day, 2023, were able to drive to nearby Myee Place where paramedics were called. Picture: Google

The court heard an argument broke out at a New Year’s Eve party in Charmhaven over an impromptu push up competition.

An agreed set of facts states the Aikens left the party but the animosity continued through a series of messages and phone calls in which Kayde organised to meet one of the victims at Blue Haven Oval for the purposes of a “1 v 1” fight.

Kayde, Brayden and McGeachie then drove to the car park and waited near the toilet blocks until the two victims — a father and son aged 50 and 27 at the time — and another man arrived in the son’s ute.

The facts state the gunmen fired twice, striking the passenger side door and window, causing it to shatter and both the father and son were hit with pellets and shrapnel.

The driver of the ute mounted a gutter as they fled.

The father and son were later taken to hospital where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

The court heard the sawn off shotgun was never recovered.

The three men return to court on January 16 to be sentenced.